What have we learned from Turkish familial hypercholesterolemia registries (A-HIT1 and A-HIT2)?

Background And Aims: Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is a common genetic disease of high-level cholesterol leading to premature atherosclerosis. One of the key aspects to overcome FH burden is the generation of large-scale reliable data in terms of registries. This manuscript underlines the important results of nation-wide Turkish FH registries (A-HIT1 and A-HIT2).

Correlation processing for correction of phase distortions in subaperture imaging.

Ultrasonic subaperture imaging combines synthetic aperture and phased array approaches and permits low-cost systems with improved image quality. In subaperture processing, a large array is synthesized using echo signals collected from a number of receive subapertures by multiple firings of a phased transmit subaperture. Tissue inhomogeneities and displacements in subaperture imaging may cause significant phase distortions on received echo signals.

Adaptive multi-element synthetic aperture imaging with motion and phase aberration correction.

Multi-element synthetic aperture techniques employing subaperture processing over successive firing steps can produce good image quality with simple front-end hardware but are susceptible to motion and phase aberration artifacts. We explore correlation processing using fully common spatial frequencies of overlapping subapertures to adapt beamforming for motion and phase aberrations. Signals derived from the subset of elements representing common spatial frequencies exhibit significantly higher correlation coefficients than those from signals computed using the entire subaperture.

Instance selection for estimation of epicardial activation sequence from venous catheter measurements.

Catheter-based electrophysiological studies of the outer surface of the heart (epicardium) are limited to regions near the heart vessels or require transthoracic access. We have developed a statistical signal processing approach by which to estimate high-resolution epicardial activation maps from multi-electrode venous catheter measurements. This technique uses a linear minimum mean-squared Bayesian estimation model that derives a relationship between venous catheter measurements and unmeasured epicardial sites from a set of previously recorded, high-resolution epicardial activation-time maps used as a training data set.

Tear function tests and conjunctival impression cytology before and after hormone replacement therapy in postmenopausal women.

Purpose: To investigate the effect of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) on postmenopausal tear function and the conjunctival epithelium.

Methods: Schirmer I-Jones test, tear film break-up time (BUT), and impression cytology findings were analyzed in 34 eyes of 17 women who were at least two years postmenopausal and not taking HRT: This series of tests was repeated after three months on HRT.

Results: The patients' average age was 53.

Neuroelectrophysiological evaluation of untreated hyperthyroid patients.

Hyperthyroidism is a common endocrinologic disorder affecting many organ systems. Musculoskeletal and neurological involvement present themselves as fatigue, muscle weakness and paralysis. Electromyography (EMG) is essential for differential diagnosis of muscle weakness.